Oratio de his qui in fide dormierunt

Of the Blessed John, On Those Who Have Fallen Asleep in the Faith: How the Liturgies and Good Works Performed for Them Benefit Them. 1. Pleasant and valuable foods, when often set out, not only draw the hungry to eat, but sometimes also incite those already sated; just as very sweet and fragrant drinks charm not only the thirsty, but also those who are the opposite, to partake. Likewise again, when those who love wealth have obtained great abundance, desire always compels them to seek opportunities that daily extend their wealth further. Therefore, you, most honored chosen ones of the Church, priests and Fathers, brothers and mothers and dearest children, are drawn to the discourse now set forth not by a hunger for divine oracles, nor by any thirst for sacred teachings, nor by a poverty of inspired knowledge, but by a truly grace-filled desire, leading you from power to power, from graces to graces, from memory to remembrance. For what has often eluded the perfect, a child has found; what has escaped the wise, has struck the unlearned; what has escaped teachers, has visited disciples. But we dare not say even this; rather, as one gathers the gleanings left after the vintage, an ear of grain overlooked in the harvest because of the abundance, and every fruit on trees forgotten after the gathering, so we shall welcome those who wish, with Christ the true God co-operating and confirming the word through works and proofs.

2. The serpent, then, which hollows out every good and God-loving thing and thought, and the murderous enemy who is slaughtered, struck by brotherly love, broken by faith, killed by hope, shaken by compassion, this lawless one has hurled at some a certain unnatural and alien pretext, wholly contrary to the sacred ordinances: that all God-loving works after death benefit not even those who have gone before. "For God has shut them out," he says, "and each will receive through the body what he has done, whether good or evil," and that "In Hades, who will confess to you?" and again, "That you will repay each according to his works," and "That what each has sown, that he will also reap." But, O wise ones, let us say to them: search and learn that great though the fear of the Lord God of all is, far greater is His goodness; and terrible though the threats are, incomparable is God's love for humanity; and again, dreadful though the condemnations are, unspeakable is the sea of His mercies.

3. For see what the divine Scripture says: how Judas Maccabaeus in Zion, the city of the Great King, when he saw his own people slain by the foreign enemies, searched their bosoms and, finding idols within them, immediately offered propitiation for each of them to the Lord, who is ready for compassion, acting most piously and with great brotherly love, whence he is also admired in divine Scripture, as in all things, so also in this. But the initiates and eyewitnesses of the Word, the disciples of the Savior and divine apostles who captured the circuit of the world, decreed that remembrance of the faithful who have fallen asleep be made at the fearful, undefiled, and life-giving mysteries; which the apostolic and catholic Church of Christ and God from the ends to the ends firmly and most incontrovertibly holds, from then until now, and until the end of the world—not at all without reason, nor vainly, nor idly and haphazardly did they decree this. For the unerring religion of Christians has received nothing useless, and has held it unshaken forever, but all things are beneficial, pleasing to God, highly profitable, and productive of the greatest salvation. 4. Therefore the great and profound Dionysius said in his mystical treatise on those who have fallen asleep, speaking thus: that we may touch upon the clear proof from his divine and venerable words.

as "The prayers of the saints, both in this life and after death, are effective for those worthy of holy prayers, that is, for the faithful." And the phrase "μήτιγε" is certainly to be understood here as nothing other than "how much more." And a little later: "For the divine hierarch, the interpreter of the divine ordinance, never sought what is not most pleasing to God and what has not been divinely promised to be given by Him; therefore he does not pray for these things for the unholy, that is, the unillumined, who have fallen asleep." And again: "Therefore the divine hierarch asks for what is pleasing to God, and we shall certainly be granted it." And again: "Thus the prayer of the divine goodness asks that all the faults of the departed due to human weakness be forgiven, and that he be placed in the land of the living, in the bosoms of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in a place where pain, grief, and groaning have fled, the divine strength of the divine goodness overlooking, by its goodness, the stains that have arisen in the departed from human weakness, since, as the Scriptures say, no one is pure from defilement." Do you see, O objector, how he confirms that the prayers for those who have passed away in divine hope are beneficial? 5. And after this, again the divinely inspired Gregory, the namesake of theology, in his funeral oration for his brother Caesarius, concerning his own mother, says: "A proclamation worthy of all hearing was heard, and a mother's grief is assuaged by a good and holy promise, to give everything to the child, that child's wealth as a funeral gift for him." And after other things: "Such then are the things from us.

and some things we have already paid, others we will pay, offering annual honors and memorials, we who are left behind in life." Do you see how he confirms, and calls good and holy, the offerings made to God on behalf of the departed, and accepts the annual memorials? 6. Then after him, John, truly golden-mouthed and golden-named, the guide and teacher of philanthropy and repentance, in his divinely luminous interpretation of the Epistles to the Philippians and Galatians, says: "For if the pagans burn their own possessions with the departed, how much more must you, the faithful, accompany the faithful with your own goods, not that they may become ashes, as those and these do, but that you may bestow greater glory upon him; and if the deceased is a sinner, that you may dissolve his sins, but if righteous, that it may become an addition to his reward and recompense." And again in another discourse: "Let us devise benefit for the departed; let us give them the assistance that is at hand, I mean alms and offerings; and this matter brings them great profit, and great gain and benefit. For it is not in vain and at random that these things have been legislated and handed down to the Church of God by its most wise disciples, I mean that the priest should make a prayer at the awesome mysteries for those who have fallen asleep in faith, unless they know that great profit comes to them from this and

the great benefit." 7. Then, together with these, the all-wise Gregory of Nyssa again speaks thus: "Nothing has been handed down without reason or without profit by the heralds and disciples of Christ, and has prevailed in the Church of God everywhere; but the matter is entirely beneficial and pleasing to God, namely, to make remembrance at the divine and all-bright mystagogy of those who have fallen asleep in the right faith. 8. For to say, 'You will repay each according to his works,' and, 'Everyone will reap what he has sown,' and the like, these are said entirely concerning the presence of the Creator and the terrible judgment then, and the consummation of this world. For then there will be no time for help at all, but every intercession will be ineffectual. For when the festival is dissolved, there is no merchandise of transaction. For where will the poor be then? where the ministers? where the psalmody? where the good deeds? where the benefactions? Therefore, before that hour, let us assist one another, and let us offer to the brother-loving, philanthropic, and soul-loving God the offerings of brotherly love; for he accepts very well, and for those who have departed unexpectedly and, so to speak, unprepared, he counts the offerings of the deficiencies made by their relatives as actual work and action for them. For the philanthropic Lord wishes to be entreated in this way, and to grant the things asked for the salvation of his own creatures, and he is then more completely bent; not only when someone struggles on behalf of his own soul, but when he does this on behalf of his neighbor.

From this, then, the soul is molded in imitation of God, and asks for the gifts of others as its own graces, and encompasses the definition of perfect love, and from this derives blessedness, and benefits its own soul together with that of its neighbor to the greatest extent. 9. And why has the matter been considered grievous? Did not the protomartyr save Falconilla after death? But perhaps you will say that this was according to merit, since she is a protomartyr, and her petition ought to be heard. To this I say: Well, the protomartyr there. But consider again, on whose behalf the request is made: that it is for a Greek, an idolatress, and one utterly unholy and a servant of a foreign master. Here, however, it is a believer for a believer before the same Lord. Set, then, from one to the other, so that the matter will be equalized, and the doubt will not remain. 10. Go through for me again from these to other things of equal power and similar character: I mean the historical book of Palladius to Lausus, in which the miracles of the great and wonder-working Macarius are truly recorded: how, inquiring of a dry skull, he learned all things about the departed. Then to this: Do you never find any consolation? (For the saint was accustomed to making prayers for the departed, and desired to know if they were of any benefit.) The Lord, being compassionate, wishing to show this and to assure his servant, breathed a word of truth into the dried skull. When, he says, you offer prayers for the dead, then we perceive some small consolation.

11. Again, to another of the God-bearing Fathers, who had a disciple living in negligence and who had reached the end of his life carelessly, the all-compassionate and soul-loving Lord, after the elder had entreated him with tears, showed him, like the rich man in the case of Lazarus, burning in the fire up to his neck. Then, after the saint had labored much and implored God with tears, he showed him again up to the waist. And then, when the saint had added further toils to his toils, he showed the elder in a vision the man completely free and delivered from the fire. 12. And who could relate in order the testimonies of these things, which are recorded in the lives of the saints—I mean in the martyrdoms and divine revelations—clearly demonstrating that even after death the departed are greatly benefited by the prayers, liturgies, and alms offered on their behalf? For nothing lent to God is ever lost, but is repaid by him with the greatest increase.

13. Regarding the Prophet’s saying, “But in Hades who will confess you?” we have already stated that the threats of the All-Seeing One are terrifying, but his ineffable philanthropy overcomes them. For after the Prophet spoke these words, confession certainly occurred in Hades—I mean of those who believed there during the Lord’s salvific descent. For the Life-Giver did not simply save everyone, but, as has been said, he saved even there those who believed. Some, then, say that those who had believed beforehand are the Fathers and Prophets, the Judges, the Kings along with them, and the Rulers, and certain others of the people of the Hebrews, countless and well-known to all. But we will respond to those who hold this opinion here: that it is neither a gift, nor a wonderful and paradoxical thing, for Christ to save those who believed. For he alone is a just judge, and everyone who has believed in him will not perish. Therefore, it was necessary that all these be saved and freed from the bonds of Hades by the descent of God and Lord. And this indeed happened through his providence. But those who were saved solely by grace of philanthropy are, I think, all those who had a most pure life and performed every excellent deed, living frugally, temperately, and prudently, but who did not grasp the pure and divine faith, not having been trained at all, but remaining entirely untaught. The Steward and Lord of all drew them and captured them with divine nets, and inclined them to believe in him, shining upon them the divine rays and showing them the light of truth.

For the compassionate one did not suffer that the labors of these men be in vain. For they had acquired a most toilsome life, laborious and straitened beyond measure; they had become masters of the passions, and had spurned pleasures together; they had practiced complete poverty, and again continence with wakefulness, and simply every excellent work. They passed through, not piously, but nevertheless, the highest providence, as they thought, worshipping excellently, but erroneously. There are some who also grasped the divine glory of the all-powerful Trinity, weakly, dimly; but they glorified it nonetheless. Others spoke of the incarnation of the Word, the venerable passions, and his resurrection; others, of his birth from a Virgin, and foretold her name. For Mary, they say, is the name of the maiden. Again, some enumerated all the supernatural miracles of Christ: of the dead, and the maimed, and the speechless, the leprous, and the deaf, and the feverish, the paralyzed and the demon-possessed, the dropsical and the withered-handed, and the walking on the sea, the blessing of the loaves and fishes, the transformation of water into wine, the woman with the issue of blood and the woman bent double, foretelling the cures, with many others. The divine power of the Word did not suffer these to be overlooked as lost, nor to lose their excellent deeds. For the portion of time lent to him, as we have said before, is not obscured; but preserved, it is restored to all who have lived well, with increase.

But those who have lived a shameful life and have done nothing good at all, possessing neither seed nor fruit whatsoever, but being wholly failed in life, word, and faith, did not sprout at all from the divine rain poured upon them from heaven; for, as I said before, they cast no seed. Nor, when the sun of glory shone, did they ripen, being altogether fruitless. Christ does not benefit these at all, nor did he raise them up when fallen, as I think, since they are utterly unworthy of salvation. Nor, it seems to me, did they believe in him. For the arrogance of darkness, the primal serpent, whose servants they have been from the beginning, blinded their minds and the spiritual eyes of their heart, so that seeing they do not see as is right, and understanding they do not understand at all. But all the others who had seed ripened when the sun appeared and sprouted when the rain came. See where the argument has led us: to resolve with God and clarify a matter that has been nearly concealed. And this I do not assertively, due to unworthiness, but syllogistically, out of brotherly love. These, I think, Christ saved in Hades.

It has been shown, then, by the cooperation of Christ, that a confession took place in Hades. We say these things not to annul prophecy—far from it—but wishing to show that the supremely good Lord is overcome by his own love for humanity; just as also with the words, "Nineveh will be overthrown," and it was not overthrown, but goodness prevailed over the judgment. And in the case of Hezekiah: "Set your house in order," he says, "for you are dying and will not live," and he did not die. And in the case of Ahab: "I will bring evils," he says, and he did not bring them, but said: "Do you see how Ahab was stricken? Therefore I will not bring evils in his days." But again, goodness prevailed over the sentence, as also in very many other judgments, and will always prevail until the final recompense, when the time of the assembly will come, and there will be no opportunity for assistance, but each man and his burden. But now is the time of transaction, the time of exchange, the time of labor and running and toil; and blessed is the one who has not faltered nor grown slack in hope; more blessed is the one who has striven both for himself and for his neighbor. For this rather delights and greatly pleases the compassionate Lord, that each one hastens to the aid of his neighbor. This the merciful one both wishes and desires, that we all be benefited by one another, both living and after death. For he would not have given us the occasion to make remembrance of those who have gone before at the bloodless sacrifice, and again the third-day, ninth-day, fortieth-day, and annual commemorations and rites.

which the Catholic and Apostolic Church, and her divinely gathered and most pious people, hold unshaken and unimpeachable, without any contradiction, unless this were straight in his eyes. For if the matter were a mockery, and profitless and useless, since many God-bearing holy patriarchs, Fathers, and teachers have arisen, one of them would have attacked to put an end to the error; but none of them has ever attempted to overturn this, but rather has confirmed it; and day by day the matter increases and is added to, receiving addition upon addition. 16. It is necessary, therefore, to mention also other histories in addition to these. Gregory the Dialogist, then, the bishop of elder Rome, a man, as all know, renowned in holiness and knowledge, to whom, they say, a heavenly and divine angel concelebrated as he celebrated the liturgy. This man once, making his way along the stone road, and stopping deliberately, made a strong prayer to the soul-loving Lord for the forgiveness of the sins of the Emperor Trajan; and immediately a voice from heaven was borne to him, saying these words: "I have heard your prayer," it says, "and I grant pardon to Trajan; but do you no longer offer prayers to me on behalf of impious men." And that this is genuine

and unimpeachable, witness the whole East and West. Behold, this is superior to that of Falconilla. For she was the cause of no other evil, but he set up a bitter fate for many martyrs. 17. You are wondrous, O Lord, and wondrous are your works; and we glorify your ineffable compassion, because you always incline toward philanthropy, providing your servants with the occasions for brotherly love, and for firm faith and hope in you. And you have taught us through your servants to perform benefactions for one another, as well as expiations and holocausts, hymns and psalmody and prayers, not in vain and to no purpose. For you are unerring and bountiful, giving to all who offer anything to your glory a manifold recompense; and nothing at all done in your name is without benefit. 18. Let no one therefore think, brothers and fathers, that whatever is offered to God with faith does not give a manifold recompense both to the one on whose behalf and for whose sake it is offered. For just as myrrh or other holy oil, when one wishes to anoint a sick person, first that one, that is, the anointer, partakes of the anointing, and then anoints the sufferer; so everyone who strives for the salvation of his neighbor first benefits himself, then his neighbor. For God is not unjust, to forget the work, according to the divine Apostle.

19. Athanasius the Great again, in his perfectly harmonious discourse on those who have fallen asleep, says the following: "Even if one who has died in piety is laid to rest in the open air, do not refuse to offer oil and candles, having invoked Christ the God, to light in the tomb; for these are acceptable to God and bring a great recompense from Him. For the oil and the candle are a whole burnt offering; the divine and bloodless sacrifice is an expiation; and kindness to the poor is an addition to every good recompense. Let the intention of the one making the offering on behalf of the departed be such as this: just as when someone has an infant child, completely speechless and weak, and when this child is ill, he brings candles, incense, and oil to a divine temple with faith, and offers them as a whole burnt offering for the child—not as if the child itself holds and offers these things, as in the renunciations and affirmations at divine regeneration—so also let him conceive of the one perfected in the Lord as both holding and offering the candles, the oil, and all things offered for his ransom; and thus, by the grace of God, the intention made with faith will by no means be frustrated.

For all the divinely inspired apostles, the sacred teachers, and the spirit-bearing Fathers, having been in possession of the Divine in accordance with what is lawful, and having partaken to some degree of its ecstatic power, with a divinely inspired mouth they piously ordained the liturgies, prayers, and psalmody, as well as the annual commemorations and memorials of those who have preceded, which up to the present, by the grace of the philanthropic God, increase and are added to, from the rising of the sun to its setting, and to the north and south, for the glory and praise of the Lord of lords and King of kings. 20. Then the opponent says: If these things are so, all will be saved, and no one will fail. Well said, and would that it were so. For the supremely good Lord thirsts for, wishes, seeks, desires, and rejoices and delights in this, that no one should fail of his divine gifts. For did he not prepare the rewards and crowns for angels? Did he not come upon the earth to save the heavenly minds, and was he not incorruptibly incarnate from a Virgin, and did he not become mortal, and taste sufferings and death? Will he not say to the angels: "Come, the blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you?" You cannot say this,

contradicting; but everything for the sake of man, just as He suffered, so also He prepared. For who, when preparing a banquet and having invited friends, does not wish all to have come and to be filled with his own goods? For what purpose did he prepare the feast, if not to welcome his own friends? And if this is urgent for us, what would it be for the munificent, and the only one by nature supremely good, and philanthropic God, who in distributing and giving rejoices and exults more than the one receiving and procuring the greatest salvation for himself. 21. Therefore, let everyone who disputes the things said consider this, that each of those men who has acquired a small leaven of virtues, but has not yet baked it into bread, having wished but not been able to do so, whether because of indolence, or negligence, or cowardice, or because of putting it off from day to day, but has been overtaken and reaped beyond hope, this one will not be forgotten by the righteous Judge and Master, but the Lord will raise up for him after his death his own relatives and kinsmen and friends, and will direct their minds, and draw their hearts, and bend their souls toward the guidance and assistance of this one; and they will hasten, moved from God, with the Master having touched their hearts, to fill up the deficiencies of the departed one.

But the one who has acquired a wicked life, entirely entangled with thorns and full of impure materials, who never cut through with his conscience, but fearlessly and indifferently wallowed in the stench of pleasures, performing all the appetites of the flesh and caring nothing at all for the soul, having his entire mindset fleshly, and thus being overtaken to depart from life—for this one, no one will extend a hand at all; but all things concerning him will be so managed that he will receive no assistance whatsoever from spouse, children, brothers, relatives, or friends, because God does not hold him in esteem. 22. For myself, then, and for whoever is my friend, may it be possible, if it can be, to assist oneself and leave no deficiency; but if I should be overtaken before being perfected, may the Lord, who is abundant in mercy, incline my kinsmen and friends toward me, and warm their souls and hearts, so that through good and God-pleasing works they might assist me very eagerly, and if, as a human, I leave any deficiency, they might fill it up for me after my fate. Yes, Lord, God of wonders and provider of the impossible, may no small or great deficiency be found in me at your presence, nor in all who trust in you; for thus the aforementioned God-inspired Chrysostom both teaches and cries out vehemently, so that I may again take hold of his most excellent words. "If," he says, "while living in this life you did not manage to set in order all the affairs of your soul, at least at the end of life command your people to convey your possessions to you after death and to give you aid through good works—I mean alms and offerings.

And from this you might reconcile the Redeemer; for these things are acceptable and suitable to him." And again, the same author elsewhere says: "Write, he says, in your testament, along with your children and relatives, making the Lord also a co-heir. Let your document bear the name of the Judge, and let the poor not be deprived of remembrance; and I am the guarantor of these things. We do not, therefore, provide occasions and pretexts for someone not to perform acts of charity while alive, but to keep them for after death; for this is entirely out of place and profane, and alien to divine legislation. But it is also most excellent and pleasing to God, and altogether acceptable, that every God-fearing and Christ-loving person purify himself through every kind of good work, abstaining from all impurity, and cleaving to the luminous commandments of God, so that when he has reached the end, he may say with confidence to the Lord: 'My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready'; and thus he may gladly go to meet the urgent angels. But this is the case for few and rarely, according to the Lord's saying: 'Few, he says, are those who are saved.' Yet the Wisdom of the All has not said this simply, but as one might say, with wonder: 'Few are those who are saved.' The rest, knowing that it is very difficult to find someone of the first class, we necessarily introduce the second, following apostolic and patristic sayings.

that the departed also benefit from the goodness of God, and that brotherly love increases, and that the hope of the resurrection is strengthened, and that prayer to God is fortified, and that the gathering at the divine temples becomes more fervently multiplied, and that beneficence toward the poor is extended. 23–14. See in how many ways the matter is profitable and beneficial, from how many exhortations the benefit of the departed arises; for it becomes an occasion for the salvation of those who are recorded. For if you remove the cause, its consequences also certainly follow. For what necessity would persuade the faint-hearted to rise up and accomplish this, unless they have assurance that they benefit their own? And the portions assigned for the poor in testaments will cease, and along with them the liturgies for the dead, hymns and psalmody, the fortieth-day commemorations with the third-day and ninth-day observances, and annual memorials and rites, which were not devised in vain by the teachers. But may it never happen that we either think or omit any of these things. 25. But if someone speaks about strangers and the poor, who have no one to contend on their behalf, nor are they able to leave a portion of liturgies or distributions—What then, he says, of these? Will they, because they are poor and strangers and overlooked and have no fellow laborers, fail of salvation? Therefore God is unjust, that he will give to the one who has, but to the one who has not he will provide nothing? Far be it from anyone to think this; for God is just and Lord, or rather to speak more truly, he is self-justice and wisdom and goodness and power hypostatically.

As then he is just, he will repay the needy with abundance; as wise, he will effect the exchange of deficiencies; as powerful, he will break the strong and strengthen the weak; as good, he will preserve the work of his own hands, unless someone is among those manifestly condemned and the rejecters of the right faith, whose left-hand scale will be heavily weighted. For the men enlightened by God say that, as on a balance, at the last breath the deeds of men are tested: and if the right-hand scale outweighs the other, it is clear that the one in question will expire among the right-hand angels. But if both are equal, the love of God for mankind prevails entirely. Yet, as the divine speakers say, even if the beam inclines a little to the left, then the mercy of God will supply what is needed. Behold, the three divine judgments of the Lord: the first is just, the second is philanthropic, the third is supremely good. Then from these comes the fourth, when the evil deeds are excessively outweighed. Alas, brothers—and this is entirely most just, decreeing justly for those judged. 26. But if some should speak of the blessed Basil, the universal luminary, as having said: "Do not be deceived; God is not mocked. A dead man is not brought to sacrifice. Bring your sacrifice living, he says. You cannot from the leftovers of your table entertain the glorious ones of the king; for he who offers from his surplus is unacceptable. But you, what has been left over after your whole life, do you offer this to your benefactor?" we say:

Well does Basil the Great both call and teach. But see also to whom he speaks: to the greedy, to the plunderers, to those utterly without pity and without mercy, as he himself testifies, saying: "We are conversing with a heart of stone." And: "The time you lived, you passed in self-indulgence and luxury, flowing in pleasure, and you could not bear even to look at the poor. But now that you are dead, what reward for your labor is owed?" And again: "My neighbor's house overshadows me," and "The greedy man respects neither time nor recognizes boundaries, but like fire he seizes and consumes everything, and like a river rushing forth, he sweeps away whatever stands in his way," and other things akin to these, which all know who have diligently applied themselves to his most sacred book, that the discourse is directed against those who have given no commandment at all to the poor, but even seize what belongs to them. 27. And let no one say: And where is such a man to be found, who abounds in wealth and does not pity the poor? Yes, indeed, he is found, as has been said before, in many other times, and also in the times of the renowned and all-holy John the Almsgiver, the one who passed from ruthlessness to complete almsgiving and holiness, Peter the tax collector once. For it is recorded in the blessed book of his life that, when he was in ecstasy and saw his own deeds being weighed, he is said to have seen a small loaf of bread on the right pan of the scale, which he himself, in anger, instead of a stone, had hurled at the face of the poor man.

through which vision this blessed Peter has been shown to have attained to a very high degree of piety. 28. Behold, therefore, it has been made known without doubt to what sort of men the great Basil directed his discourse. For there was also a famine at that time, both severe and great, in that period; and those who were wealthy, overcome by parsimony, held fast to their wealth; while the poor, oppressed by want, were perishing from the famine. So this divine Shepherd opened, with his severe, compelling, and at the same time most terrifying words, the storehouses of the wealthy without fear. For if he had not spoken out in this way, the poor would not have been fed, nor would the wealthy have been bent to pity. And so much for that. 29. But let us hasten, with all our might, toward the dreadful and fearful day, I mean the second coming of the Lord, lest we be accused by our own people of having neglected what concerns them; and especially those of us who have received from them commissions and deposits. For let no one think that there will not be a recognition of each by each at that fearful assembly. Yes, indeed, each will recognize his neighbor, not by the form of the body, but by the discerning eye of the soul. Whence, you ask, shall we establish this? Hear the Lord Christ clearly teaching in the parable of the poor Lazarus, that, he says, "The rich man, lifting up his eyes, recognized the poor Lazarus sitting in the bosom of the patriarch Abraham;" and likewise also Abraham. And let no one say that, because the matter is a parable, the point is unproven.

For the divine parables of our Savior are of things that are stable, possible, and demonstrated. 30. John Chrysostom speaks thus: "Not only shall we recognize those known to us here, but we shall also behold those who have never come into our sight. For you have not seen Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor the patriarchs, nor the prophets, nor the apostles, nor the martyrs; but having seen them at that universal and awe-inspiring assembly, you will recognize them and say: Behold Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest of the patriarchs. Behold Peter and Paul and all the apostles. Behold David the forefather of God, and the swarm of prophets. Behold John the Forerunner, and Stephen the protomartyr, and the multitude of the saints." Then again the great Basil, discoursing to the covetous, says: "Will you not take before your eyes the tribunal of Christ? When those who have been wronged by you stand around you and cry out against you. For wherever you turn your eyes, you will see clear images of your evils. Here the orphans, there the widows; elsewhere the poor whom you have beaten; the servants whom you have flayed; the neighbors whom you have provoked," and so forth. 31. And the blessed Ephraim, the most exact initiate of the second coming of Christ, teaches thus: "Then, he says, children will condemn their own parents, as not having performed good works. And that the wretched see their acquaintances in that hour.

And whenever they see some of their own assigned to the right-hand parts, they separate themselves, lamenting the farewell." And again the one named for theology, "Then," he says, "I shall see Caesarius, bright, glorious, rejoicing, as you appeared to me even in a dream, dearest of brothers." Then the one renowned in life and word, and foundation of the Church of God, Athanasius, speaks thus concerning those who have fallen asleep in the Lord: that "This also God has granted to those who are saved, to be together spiritually and to rejoice with one another until the common resurrection, having expectation of the divine gifts that will be allotted to them; but sinners are deprived even of this consolation. For they do not have discernment among themselves. In that universal theater, just as the deeds of all are revealed, so also the faces are recognizable by all, until the final separation of all takes place; and each one will be sent away to the place he has prepared for himself: the righteous with God and with one another; sinners in the outlying places, or even with one another, but nevertheless without recognition. For they are deprived, as has been said, even of such consolation.

32. And what shame, then, will there be for the disgraced, if they are not manifest to all? For shame is grievous and greatest when one both knows and is known in turn; for everyone who is ashamed is ashamed before those who know him, since for one unknown among the unknown, no shame, however small, will come to the disgraced. This, then, is unquestionable and irrefutable, that we shall all clearly recognize one another; and then the reproach of all who have lived unseemly will be before the eyes of each. 33. Woe, then, to all like me; and woe, according to the divine Ephraim, to those assigned to the left. But blessed and all-blessed are those whom the Master will set at his right; and they will hear a blessed voice, which may we all be deemed worthy to hear—we who have kept the orthodox faith—and to be filled with all good things, whose beauty no eye of mortals has seen, nor ears at all have heard, nor heart has ever conceived. Amen. May it be so, O life-giving Master, through the intercessions of your all-pure Mother, and of your immaterial and venerable intelligences, and of all together, O Word, of your saints who from eternity have pleased you. Amen.